One of the oldest restaurants in the West, "The Old Clam House" in San Francisco, Calif., celebrates its 150 year anniversary. It has been renovated and refurbished by its new owners Jennifer and Jerry Dal Bozzo. It is located on Bayshore and Oakdale St, in the industrial district of the city.
February 17, 2012

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

One of the oldest restaurants in the West, "The Old Clam House" in...

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Peter(left) and Shiela Doyle (not seen) from San Bruno love to come to "The Old Clam House" in San Francisco, California. Josh Liu and Christine Lazaro( in the corner) order food by the server Jonathan Krencicki (left) and Felipe Avila (right). The restaurant is one of the oldest in the West and is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary. It has been renovated and refurbished by its new owners Jennifer and Jerry Dal Bozzo. It is located on Bayshore and Oakdale St, in the industrial district of the city.
February 17, 2012

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

Peter(left) and Shiela Doyle (not seen) from San Bruno love to come...

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Bartender Ron Araneta at the bar located in the largest room of the restaurant, February 17, 2012. "The Old Clam House" is one of the oldest in the West and is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary. It has been renovated and refurbished by its new owners Jennifer and Jerry Dal Bozzo. It is located on Bayshore and Oakdale St, in the industrial district of the city.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

Bartender Ron Araneta at the bar located in the largest room of the...

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"We come here, because my mom came here to get a clam chowder when she was a kid," shares Maya Armenta (center right). Her husband Michael Armenta (right) and son Benicio 10 months old and their friends Rachel Mclntir and Elly Goetz are preparing to order, February 17, 2012. "The Old Clam House" is one of the oldest restaurants in the West and is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary. It has been renovated and refurbished by its new owners Jennifer and Jerry Dal Bozzo. It is located on Bayshore and Oakdale St, in the industrial district of the city.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

"We come here, because my mom came here to get a clam chowder when...

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"This used to be a storage room, but the new owners turned it in a glassed patio. Customers love it." says Jorge Verduzco, the manager of "The Old Clam House" in San Francisco, California, February 17, 2012. The restaurant is one of the oldest in the West and is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary. It has been renovated and refurbished by its new owners Jennifer and Jerry Dal Bozzo. It is located on Bayshore and Oakdale St, in the industrial district of the city.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

"This used to be a storage room, but the new owners turned it in a...

Image 6 of 7

Peter and Shiela Doyle from San Bruno love to come to "The Old Clam House" in San Francisco, California, February 17, 2012. The restaurant is one of the oldest in the West and is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary. It has been renovated and refurbished by its new owners Jennifer and Jerry Dal Bozzo. It is located on Bayshore and Oakdale St, in the industrial district of the city.

Photo: Siana Hristova, The Chronicle

Peter and Shiela Doyle from San Bruno love to come to "The Old Clam...

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Jennifer (left) and Jerry Dal Bozzo, the new owners in front of "The Old Clam House" in San Francisco, California, February 17, 2012. The restaurant is one of the oldest in the West and is celebrating it's 150 year anniversary.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us raise a cup of clam juice for a salty toast to a San Francisco institution celebrating its 150th anniversary this week by throwing a party for itself.

This is the Old Clam House, which opened for business in December 1861, when Abraham Lincoln was president. It is the oldest San Francisco restaurant still operating on the same location. The Tadich Grill (1849) is older, but it's moved several times.

You may not have heard of the Old Clam House, since it is located at the corner of Oakdale Avenue and Bayshore Boulevard, between Bernal Heights and the Bayview, a corner of the city that is mostly industrial.

The Old Clam House is famous for not being famous, a sort of secret hideout full of old pictures, decent food and lots of old-time atmosphere.

There must be a hundred places like that in San Francisco - nice, quiet, old restaurants where everybody looks kind of familiar and there's never a guy with a convention badge around his neck.

The Old Clam House used to be a hangout for Herb Caen and his pals, but recently it had slipped a bit; just last summer Jerry Dal Bozzo and his wife, Jennifer, bought it and gave it a new lease on life. Both of them are native San Franciscans (he's from North Beach, she's from Noe Valley) and they were looking for an old restaurant to restore.

"I thought it would be fun," Jerry Dal Bozzo said over coffee the other afternoon. They liked the look of the place. "I liked the history," Jennifer said.

Everybody who eats there gets a shot of clam juice as soon as they sit down. They also get a shot of history. The place began as the Oakdale Bar & Clam House; the owners were Ambrose Zurfluh and his wife, Anna. They served a schooner of steam beer for a nickel and a nice, free lunch - soup, eggs, sliced meat. The house specialty was clams and oysters out of the bay.

What is now Bayshore Boulevard was really on the edge of the bay - a winding saltwater slough and marshland was right out the Clam House's back door. The marsh was filled in with rubble from the 1906 earthquake and the neighborhood later had a lot of lumber yards. Butchertown, a now-vanished meatpacking district, was not far away.

The main road out of town ran right by the door. In the old days there was a string of roadhouses a bit like the Clam House all the way from downtown to the 16-Mile House in Millbrae. Until the freeway opened in 1951, Bayshore Boulevard was Highway 101.

After that, the Old Clam House became a neighborhood place. Restaurant critics came once in a while. They liked the atmosphere; the food earned faint praise. The great California food revolution of the 1980s passed the place by.

Jerry Dal Bozzo owns eight other restaurants, including the Stinking Rose and Calzone in North Beach, the Franciscan at Fisherman's Wharf and Salito's in Sausalito. A year or so ago, he saw an opportunity in the Old Clam House.

"I didn't want to retire," he said. "Retired guys play golf. This is my golf."

He said he and his wife spent between $200,000 and $300,000 fixing up the place. "I wanted to get a San Francisco look to it," he said.

The result is a bit like a modern idea of an old-time restaurant - lots of old pictures, pressed metal ceilings, big fans, a few booths with curtains. "For privacy," he said.

The menu has changed. It's more modern. More expensive, but not too expensive. They still have a Golden Gate clam chowder ($6.95 a bowl), made from a 19th century Oakdale Bar recipe. A whole crab with "secret garlic sauce" runs $34.95.

So far, the change seems to have worked. The place is crowded, especially on weekend nights. I had a quiet lunch there myself the other day. Not bad.

It is open every day, except for the 150th birthday party Thursday evening. Invitation only.